Modern weather forecasting and planning utilizes a wide variety of weather information from a plurality of sources. Such weather information may include satellite imagery, radar imagery, alpha-numeric text such as temperatures, rainfall, barometer readings, and the like. This information may be collected by orbiting satellites, regional and ground stations, and direct observations.
Meteorological and aviation professionals in the military, commercial, and private sectors utilize a wide range of weather information to prepare flight plans. Collecting weather information relevant to a flight path, however, is problematic in that the data is collected and stored by region or area, not by path. Moreover, to obtain a full range of weather information, a number of different systems must generally be accessed.